Desert magic

Wednesday, Nov. 18 -- If the trip ended today, I think we'd all still be happy. Yesterday and today were perfect days, spent in the company of the Bedouin. We overnighted at a camp in Wadi Rum, perhaps best known as the locale where Lawrence of Arabia was filmed. What a glorious place! Much like Canyonlands in Utah, just not as red. Towering mountains surround a huge valley (wadi means dry riverbed), sand dunes sweep up the sides of sheer walls, sparse vegetation, gorgeous sunset and sunrise, the night sky filled with stars. And let's not forget the camels. Although it was only about a 10-minute ride, I can add the camel as a mode of transportation to my list. The little Bedouin who led us through the desert was about seven years old, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

We started out in open 4-wheel-drive jeeps and bounced across the sand til we came to the camp. Unlike the Egyptian Bedouins, who are much disliked by their host country, the Jordanian Bedouins are treated well here. Our host, Mohammed, led us to our "rooms," which were individual partitions in big tents. There were about 25 of us, and we all had tea in a large separate tent, sitting on floor mats. Some of us, including yours truly, Karen and Ken, also partook of sheesha, a very mild tobacco, apple-flavored in this case, smoked through a water pipe. No choking, coughing or any of the other reactions associated with smoking by non-smokers. It actually was quite pleasant, altho I understand it's addictive. Dinner was cooked in the ground, on a three-tiered kind of tray that they pulled up from hot coals. Very nice -- chicken, zucchini, onions, potatoes, tomatoes, and of course the always present bread with hummus. It was quite wonderful.

So dark that the stars just jumped out at us, the night was supposed to offer a spectacle of shooting stars, but we didn't see any. It was cloudy part of the time, and quite cold. Stepping out of the tent this morning, I was greeted by complete silence. I mean, complete silence. No birds, no dogs, no electrical generator, no toilets flushing, no wind blowing. It was both eerie and quite wonderful. We spent the morning walking and doing a little climbing on those walls, visiting a place called Lawrence Spring, where a little water filled a natural well, watching wild camels wander by. Did I mention one of the cars broke down? This seems to be part of life in the desert. No angry reactions this time.

The Bedouins were wonderful; their English is good, they sang for us, posed for pictures, told us about their lives (the main guy owns 14 camels and two homes, although one's a tent, and has two girlfriends). He offered four camels and two women to Clive in exchange for his beauteous wife, Nicky. Although they live literally in the middle of nowhere, their lives have been transformed by the internet. They own computers, have internet access, e-mail addresses and web sites. Mohammed said the virtual world has dramatically changed their lives.

We had spent the earlier part of the day in Aqaba, the Jordanian port where we arrived. We could look across the water at Israel, 10 minutes away, and the Saudi Arabian border is just a 15 minute drive. Majdi, our Jordanian guide, spent a great deal of time briefing (probably the wrong word) us about Jordanian history, the king, its 27 universities, the Arab revolution against the Turks and the aquifer that's large enough to meet the country's water needs for the next hundred years. I won't bore you.

Did I mention our driver is name Jihad??!!